IN THE COURTROOM Legalizing Euthanasia in Sierra Leone? Posted by on Feb 12, 2008, 02:30

Euthanasia has been accepted in some forms by various groups or societies throughout history. In ancient Greece and Rome helping others die or putting them to death was considered permissible in some situations. For example, in the Greek city of Sparta newborns with severe birth defects were put to death. Voluntary euthanasia for the elderly was an approved custom in several ancient societies.

However, as Christianity developed and grew powerful in the West, euthanasia became morally and ethically abhorrent and was viewed as a violation of God's gift of life. Today most branches of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam condemn active euthanasia, although some permit restricted forms of passive euthanasia. Following traditional religious principles, Western laws have generally treated the act of assisting someone in dying as a form of punishable homicide (unlawful killing). However, in modern times laws have become more secular.

Those who wish to legalize euthanasia have argued that, under principles of individual liberty individuals have a legal right to die as they choose. Most countries including the United States), however, have not fully adopted this position and retain restrictions on euthanasia. The first organizations to promote the legalization of voluntary euthanasia were the United States and Great Britain sometime around the 1930s. For several decades these organizations remained small and had little impact. However, in the late 1970s the pro-euthanasia movement gained significant momentum after a highly publicized incident in the United States.

 In 1975 a 21-year-old woman named Karen Ann Quinlan suffered a respiratory arrest that resulted in severe and irreversible brain damage and left her in a coma. Several months later, after doctors informed them that their daughter's recovery was extremely unlikely, Quinlan's parents requested that artificial means of life support be removed. The hospital refused this request. After a lengthy legal battle, in 1976 the Quinlans obtained a court order allowing them to remove the artificial respirator that was thought to be keeping their daughter alive.

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the Quinlans could disconnect the device so that the patient could "die with dignity." This decision spawned increased discussion of the scope of patients' rights to control their death. (Although the respirator was removed in 1976, Quinlan began to breathe on her own. She lived until 1985 without ever regaining consciousness.) In the early 1990s the decision of Nancy B. v. Hotel-Dieu de Quebec in Canada played a similar role in promoting public awareness of the issues surrounding euthanasia. In this case, a young woman paralyzed as a result of the rare disease known as Guillain-Barré syndrome wished to have the artificial breathing mechanism that kept her alive disconnected. Concluding that such refusal of treatment was permissible; in January 1992 a Québec superior court judge authorized the woman's physician to remove the respirator.

Ethical Issues
The issue of euthanasia raises ethical questions for physicians and other health-care providers. The ethical code of physicians has long been based in part on the Hippocratic Oath, which requires physicians to do no harm. However, medical ethics are refined over time as definitions of harm change. Prior to the 1970s, the right of patients to refuse life-sustaining treatment (passive euthanasia) was controversial. As a result of various court cases, this right is nearly universally acknowledged today, even among conservative bio-ethicists.

The controv1ersy over active euthanasia remains intense, in part because of opposition from religious groups and many members of the legal and medical professions. Opponents of voluntary active euthanasia emphasize that health-care providers have professional obligations that prohibit killing. These opponents maintain that active euthanasia is inconsistent with the roles of nursing, care giving, and healing. Opponents also argue that permitting physicians to engage in active euthanasia creates intolerable risks of abuse and misuse of the power over life and death. They acknowledge that particular instances of active euthanasia may sometimes be morally justified.

However, opponents argue that sanctioning the practice of killing would, on balance, cause more harm than benefit. Supporters of voluntary active euthanasia maintain that, in certain cases, relief from suffering (rather than preserving life) should be the primary objective of health-care providers. They argue that society is obligated to acknowledge the rights of patients and to respect the decisions of those who elect euthanasia. Supporters of active euthanasia contend that since society has acknowledged a patient's right to passive euthanasia (for example, by legally recognizing refusal of life-sustaining treatment), active euthanasia should similarly be permitted.

When arguing on behalf of legalizing active euthanasia, proponents emphasize circumstances in which a condition has become overwhelmingly burdensome for a patient, pain management for the patient is inadequate, and only a physician seems capable of bringing relief. They also point out that almost any individual freedom involves some risk of abuse and argue that such risks can be kept to a minimum by using proper legal safeguards.